The Diary of Anne Ku

ESOTERIC, PENTAMINE

6 May 2000

Yesterday was the fifth day of the fifth month - and coincidentally it fell on the fifth day of the week. At dusk, a pentatonic tune came to me as I sat at my piano. After some progressions, it metamorphised into a full piece by this morning. PENTAMINE I called it.

Some newspapers said that the planets would align on the 3rd of May. Others said it was the 5th. Some people said there would be catastrophes. Others claimed that it would be a spiritual awakening for people on earth. Whatever the case, I decided to visit WATKINS, the esoteric bookshop, famous for its books for the mind, body, and spirit. Here I found books on philosophy, psychology, alternative medicine, spirituality, astrology, new age thinking, and religion. I felt like a child of the universe, only beginning to see what existed, hardly knowing what there was to know or understanding what others had written. So many concepts I had not even heard of!

When I was a child, I was curious about everything. I remember visiting the local library and borrowing books on palmistry, astrology, numerology, telepathy, and graphology. Instead of pursuing these interests, I took the scientific approach and became very left-brained. That is, as far as prediction was concerned, I followed the path of reducing uncertainty by seeking information, performing statistical analysis, doing forecasting, and practising other mathematically and scientifically based disciplines. It's just about as rationalist as one could get.

Yet now that music has taken me back to my childhood - back to my right brain, I am curious again. This time, I am starting from square one, with an empty mind, as the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying suggests. This time, I am reading what interests me - not what I think I should read - for my job, for my survival, or for approval. The more I read, the more I realise how little I know. The more I learn, the more I realise how much there is to learn.

yesterday

tomorrow